Thursday, May 22, 2008

She wants to be President. The only way to sway her is to offer her a position with more ower than the President. Because she wants power.

... The latest round of calls was a tacit admission that while the battles aren't over, the war has been lost. It also raises the question, What will Clinton's terms of surrender turn out to be? Her husband, for one, seems to have a pretty clear idea what he thinks she should get as a consolation prize. In Bill Clinton's view, she has earned nothing short of an offer to be Obama's running mate, according to some who are close to the former President. Bill "is pushing real hard for this to happen," says a friend.

And if she really wants it, with all of the delegates she has, Bill can turn enough of the Super Delegaes that owe him a favor, but embraced Obama, to vote for her with the VP nomination hits the floor.

Hillary is more opaque about what she might want,

Because she is still pushing for the top slot.

divulging little even to those who see and talk to her every day. "It's as plain as the nose on your face that this whole thing has shifted to a different mode," says a top Clinton strategist. "But I don't know what she wants. I don't know what she's thinking."

She wants power, and for everyone that go in her way to suffer.

Even if Clinton is not on the ticket, the list of things she might want could range from a tangible move like help in paying off some of her campaign debt

That is just chump change. If she is President Bill can replace that in speaking fees in just a few months.

to a symbolic gesture of homage at the Democratic National Convention.

What gesture of homage can they offer that does not involve boiling Obama in oil or some other painful death.

Obama's team knows that Clinton and her crew above all are likely to want respect to be paid for their efforts; beyond that, it is unclear what the tab will be.... Some of Clinton's own strategists are doubtful that Obama will offer to make her his running mate — in no small part because that would mean bringing Bill aboard.

Precisely.

Her presence on the ticket would also undercut Obama's core message of change and his promise of a new brand of politics. However, advisers say that in the interest of unifying the party, there may well be a good argument for tapping one of the Clintons' high-profile supporters, such as Indiana Senator Evan Bayh or Ohio governor Ted Strickland.

Do you think the Clintons care for any of their supporters?

... One measure of Obama's desire for peace will be whether he ignores objections from some of his most stalwart backers and helps Clinton pay off her $20 million-plus campaign debt, either by headlining events on her behalf or by appealing to his donors to help her. There is an urgency to this task: she has only until late August to raise the cash from donors to repay herself more than $11 million she has personally loaned her campaign.

Perhaps the knottiest question in the end will be this: If the vice presidency is not in Clinton's future, what role will she be permitted to play at the convention? She has earned by effort alone a chance to speak there. Several party officials believe she is likely to insist that her name be placed in nomination on the first ballot,

She is certainly entitled to that. And she will be twisting super delegate arms to get them to vote for her.

opening up all the divisions once again. Whether and how Clinton and Obama can work their way through the terms of surrender will tell voters a lot about both of them. And it could help determine whether a Democrat is elected in November.